RIP, Gilbert Kaplan

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You know, we heard about the (untimely) deaths of David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust?),  Alan Rickman, and Glenn Frey.  But, there are people who make differences each and every day that we don’t hear about.  Here’s one such example.

Since the Great Recession (you know, the financial failure created world wide by the “Too Big to Fail”… but fail they did in a very big way), the economy was wrenched and cavorted, leading to the termination of some 15 million jobs in the US alone.  And, while employment is back (to a large degree), the dislocations for those 45 and older have been severe.  (You know there is no age discrimination by law- but, in practice, that’s just BS.)  Folks had to find jobs that paid less, demanded more hours, yet were less satisfying than those they held before.

With the economy beginning to pick up steam (as long as China -with it’s manipulated economy and growth stats doesn’t make it worse), one can hope that folks will be able to find better jobs.  Make more money.  See compensation rise (for the non-1%).

Some of us have already found different skills to put to use.   Others obtained training and education to let them do that, as well.  Today, we’ll discuss one guy who managed to change his life twice.  OK.  The first time was a semi-centennial ago.   (And, they’ll be another twist.   But, that’s the rest of the story.)

Gil Kaplan began his career as an economist working for the ASE (American Stock Exchange).  And, he happened to convince the owner of Seagrams (Gerald Bronfman) and a few others to loan him the small sum of $ 100K to start a new financial rag.  (You know, back when newspapers and broadsides were potentially profitable- and when $100K was a lot of money.)

Well, the Institutional Investor (II) began publication in 1967.  Helping Kaplan along was George Goodman- and the two of them managed make II the go-to guide for money managers and business folks.    (Goodman made a big name for himself on PBS later on with his show “Adam Smith’s Money World”.   But, that’s not really the story for today either.)

Not surprising, the II empire made Kaplan rich.  Very rich.  He sold it to Capital Cities Communications in the go-go 1980s for something in the neighborhood of $ 100 million.  Which left him to his other passion.

About the same time he was starting II, he became mesmerized by Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony (aka, the Resurrection Symphony).   Now, one of my favorite conductors was Michael Tilson-Thomas, who is also so mesmerized.  (Not so much for Leonard Bernstein or Seiji Ozawa, my other two go-to conductors.)

To say the 2nd symphony is a bitch of a piece is to understate it.  You need an orchestra of some 100 folks, a choir (five to ten score large), soloists (at least 2), and some 90 minutes to complete the five movements of the piece.  But, that didn’t seem to deter Kaplan, who thought he could conduct the symphony when he was starting his fifth decade of life.   Oh, remember, Kaplan was an economist, not a trained musician.

Gil Kaplan 2nd Symphony

No problem.  He retained the services of Charles Bornstein as his teacher and for days on end, they studied the piece.  (Supposedly, there were2 some 200+ hours of study over the course of a month.)  From there, Kaplan jet-setted to catch the symphony being conducted by Zubin Mehta, James Levine, even Georg Solti.   Then he set about to correct the score used (claiming to detect some 300 errors from Mahler’s original intent) and produced a new score that acquired the imprimatur of the esteemed International Gustav Mahler Society (in Vienna).

So, this gave him the “chops” to conduct his score with orchestras from Vienna, London, Moscow, Israel, among many others.  He even produced a recording of the symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra.  (Yes, it’s the best selling Mahler recording.)

His wife was adorned with the ring Mahler presented to his wife.  And, he owned the baton owned by Mahler.

Oh, Kaplan’s brother?   Joseph Brooks- the man who wrote “You Light Up My Life” of Debbie Boone fame.

Amazingly (at least to me), he never was paid for his conducting efforts- because he felt he was not a professional musician.  And, he could only read the Second Symphony music.  If you showed him another piece, it was like handing me a book written in Amharic- you know, Greek to me.

Last but not least, Kaplan conducted the symphony from memory.  He never had the music in front of him as a crutch.

Kaplan died of cancer on New Year’s Day at the age of 74.

Gil Kaplan does Mahler

Now, what were you saying?   That it’s hard to learn to do something new when we are over the age of 40?   Yup.  That’s what I thought I heard you muttering.

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